Forum:Programming and automation of the wiki
This is intended to be a new forum page to discuss programming and automation of the Girl Genius wiki. -- William Ansley (talk) 03:09, December 5, 2017 (UTC) ---- Also (changing the subject a little), how do you get back to the left margin without using the source editor? : I assume you are talking about editing the discussions forums, correct? On the Girl Genius wiki (to the best of my knowledge), we are using the original "wiki-style" discussion forums, which probably predate all forms of the visual editor. For me, at least, the visual editor options doesn't seem to be available at all on forum pages. The "wiki style" discussions were superseded (although not replaced) by another, more user-friendly, type of discussion forum, but these newer type of discussions are being phased out in favor of a more mobile-friendly discussion system, which is, however, much less tightly integrated with the wiki pages. : Obviously, I don't know the answer to your specific question. It may be impossible to edit "wiki-style" discussion forums without using the source editor. I actually hardly ever use the current visual editor because, when I started participating in this wiki (~ 2010), the visual editor was quite rudimentary and more annoying to use than source mode. It has been greatly improved since then, and has some advantages over using source mode, especially when dealing with templates, but old habits die hard. -- William Ansley (talk) 03:56, December 5, 2017 (UTC) Also, why isn't putting the new "Discuss" line up every MWF automated? (And, where should I be asking questions like these?) Bkharvey (talk) 07:09, December 4, 2017 (UTC) : I'm not sure. I would guess because no one has had both the time and knowledge to figure out how to do it. I certainly don't have the time and I'm not sure I have the knowledge either. (Lack of time is why I haven't made any attempt to answer your wiki-automation questions before now; I wasn't simply ignoring you.) Argadi is much more senior in this forum than I am and is by far the most active member of what qualifies as "the old guard" these days. Perhaps he has more insight into this. : If there is a "right place" to ask questions about general aspect of using Wikia, I supposed that it would be Community Central. But feel free to post any such questions you have here, and I will answer them as best I can. -- William Ansley (talk) 03:58, December 5, 2017 (UTC) ::: Thanks. When I have more time (I feel your pain...), I'll look further into this. Bkharvey (talk) 04:03, December 5, 2017 (UTC) : There were incremental improvements to get to the current situation, where creating the pages is just a button push. Several of us dove in to learn something about the process. I didn't make the last step with the button push, and it's been years since any significant changes were made so I'd have to search over again. : Asking in Community Central is a good thought. Another approach is to take a look at other wikis and try to find an automated process and copy it. Argadi (talk) 12:38, December 5, 2017 (UTC) Go-to-Forum button for GG pages Announcing: A Greasemonkey user script that installs a "Wiki" button on GG comics pages that, when clicked, opens a new tab with the Forum page corresponding to that comic. Works on both current and older pages: http://cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ggwikipage.user.js (This is an "old style" (Greasemonkey 3) script. I'm still running Firefox 52. ☺) Version 2 12/16/17 with smaller button. Fixed permissions. Version 3 12/21/17: Find date of today's comic by parsing datestring. Version 4 1/3/18: Fix formatting of single-digit date numbers. Version 5 1/21/18: Fix URLs that end in "#blahblah." Where is the CSS for the layout of forum pages? I want to figure out how to exclude minor edits from the "Recent wiki activity" listing. Thanks. Bkharvey (talk) 02:01, December 23, 2017 (UTC) : The page has the option to show or hide minor edits. (That's how I keep up with the wiki, intentionally showing minor edits cause I don't want to miss reviewing a bad edit just because it is marked as minor.) Argadi (talk) 11:40, December 23, 2017 (UTC) : I don't understand why you are explicitly asking about forum pages. Non-forum pages also include a Recent Wiki Activity section. Argadi (talk) 11:44, December 23, 2017 (UTC) :: I guess I was just trying to distinguish them from the main page, which doesn't. So I guess I mean where's the CSS for non-main pages? Bkharvey (talk) 19:08, December 23, 2017 (UTC) New threaded next/prev page button This is a work-in-progress; so far it works only on pages starting at "Tarvek embarks." But I just have to add more pages to the database. (Volunteers welcome...) http://cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ggthread.user.js If the page being shown is the first after a scene shift, or the last before a scene shift, it has a button labelled either "◄ thread" or "thread ►" respectively. Clicking the button moves to the nearest page in the same scene, so, e.g., you can follow Agatha through Londonium without interruption by Tarvek, or follow Tarvek on the pirate ship without interruption by Agatha. Bkharvey (talk) 04:18, January 23, 2018 (UTC) ---- As it turns out, the concept of a "thread" isn't always so obvious. Often it is, as in the current (maybe ending soon) alternation between Agatha's story and Tarvek's story. But sometimes, a scene ends, and different characters disappear for different lengths of time: On this page, we see Punch and Judy, and although we don't exactly see the Baron's party, we do see the clank that they're following. Then the scene shifts to Agatha and Moloch. The Baron reappears pretty soon, but we don't see Punch and Judy again for quite a while, until they appear aboard Castle Wulfenbach, So instead of one "thread ►" button, there are two, one with "Baron ►" and one with "Punch Judy ►" (not enough room for the "and"). Later on there are many occasions when we continue following Agatha, but some important character(s) disappear for a while. So I'm learning a lot of Javascript, and finding that creating the database is really time-consuming. I have the beginning up to Agatha's escape from Castle W., and the end starting at Tarvek going to(ward) England. Version 2, 1/23/18. Bkharvey (talk) 04:12, January 24, 2018 (UTC) Search bar doesn't find words in the middle of a title ... so for example if you don't remember Professor Consolmagno's first name, you can't find out by searching for "Consolmagno." Or is that just for me, for some reason? And if it's for everyone, can it be fixed? Bkharvey (talk) 04:40, June 13, 2018 (UTC) : It works for me. http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Search?query=Consolmagno Argadi (talk) 08:28, June 13, 2018 (UTC) : I think you may be confusing the autocomplete feature of the wiki with the search feature. When you start typing in the search field at the top of any page, the autocomplete feature offers suggested terms you might be searching for and this does indeed only word for strings at the beginnings of words. But if you type in some text, ignoring the autocomplete suggestions, and press the Return/Enter key, then the complete text of all articles will be searched. ♦ : Since the autocomplete feature is very useful, especially in cases where you can't quite remember how to spell a name, but you know how it starts, I have added a redirect page for "Consolmagno" to "Guylian Consolmagno", which will allow the wiki to autocomplete on "con...". I hope this helps. -- William Ansley (talk) 12:11, June 19, 2018 (UTC) Proposal: A queryable database of GG pages So, one could ask for "Higgs and Vole" or "Vanamonde and not Mechanicsburg" etc. Anyone interested in working on it besides me? I still have to finish the thread database... Bkharvey (talk) 03:28, August 7, 2018 (UTC) : I don't understand how queries like that would make the wiki much more useful. And if I did I probably would only give suggestions, not help implement. I want this wiki to succeed, but I have to much going on in my life to add another major project. (I have several major projects on hold, waiting in vain to be given time.) Argadi (talk) 08:07, August 7, 2018 (UTC) :: Yeah, I know the feeling. :: I guess it's not so much for the wiki per se; it's more a better version of the skip-to-a-scene bar that would allow more fine-tuned searching (and wouldn't require knowing where in chronological order the page you're looking for came). Bkharvey (talk) 08:20, August 7, 2018 (UTC) ::: I, on the other hand, think a properly designed database would be very helpful to this wiki, but I have zero time to devote to it. I was going to post a link to the secret comics database for Girl Genius that indexes the dialog for the comic up to some time in 2010, but alas the link is unavailable now. (It is found near the bottom of the Chronology overview page.) I emailed the DB creator twice, years ago, using an email address that Argadi gave me, offering to help update it, but never got a response. I just tried emailing again, asking if the DB was offline for good. If I get a reply, I'll update that page of the wiki as appropriate. If I don't get any response in a week or so, and it stays unavailable, I'll update it anyway, removing the link and adding a note. -- William Ansley (talk) 03:04, August 10, 2018 (UTC)